London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 11, 2025

Could Biden put a divided world together again?

Could Biden put a divided world together again?

Suggestions that the Sinosphere and the Amerisphere can coexist separately and should be left to their own devices are dangerous and naive. With the global economy in a precarious position, Biden must restore worldwide collective action if he wins the presidential election.

Can the divided halves of the globe – the Sinosphere and the Amerisphere – come back together in the event that American voters reject US President Donald Trump next month (and that he can be ejected from the White House)? The two halves can and must reunite before things really fall apart in the global economy.

Crises are looming on multiple economic fronts, including an imminent global debt crisis and economic recession, not to mention a resurgent Covid-19
and the growing climate emergency. This is certainly no time for leaders to be pulling the world apart into East and West hemispheres.

How soon healing might happen under a Biden presidency would depend upon whether the would-be new leader is willing and able to strike out in a rational and farsighted new direction to achieve better relations with China rather than lashing out in the angry, shortsighted way Trump has done.

Fortunately, there have been some quite promising auguries from the Biden camp in this regard. His advisers have reportedly said they would prioritise domestic issues to enable the US to compete with China from a position of economic strength rather attack it on trade and other fronts.

This is precisely the kind of “make America grow again” approach that has been advocated on many occasions in this column as an alternative to Trump’s more destructive “make America great again” by cutting off its rivals’ legs (figuratively speaking).

“I don’t think the question is who’s tough or who’s weak on China,” former US deputy secretary of state Tony Blinken said. “The question is who has the most effective strategy to protect and advance [US] prosperity, values and security.”

That makes good, constructive sense and if Biden can practise what his advisers preach, then the chances of a return to sanity in US-China relations look more promising – always assuming that such wise counsel prevails over more foolish and (increasingly) warmongering talk in the Trump camp.

Fortunately, too, as Harvard economist Paul Sheard has noted, decoupling China from the rest of the world is “easier said than done” because China is either the largest or the second-largest economy in the world, depending on definition, and is enmeshed in supply chains with the rest of the world.

Sheard observed, “The “rhetoric of decoupling tends to run way ahead of the reality.” This is similar to some views in China: Wang Huiyao, founder of the Centre for China and Globalisation, has said that “contrary to the narrative of decoupling, China remains a crucial growth market” for Europe.

Even so, economic logic doesn’t always dictate political outcomes. The Amerisphere and the Sinosphere continue as of now to pull (or be pushed) further apart, and if the Trump administration endures beyond the presidential election (no minor risk) then the world must brace themselves for the worst.

Suggestions that the two spheres can coexist separately and should be left to their own devices are as dangerous as they are naive. Global collective action must be restored and strengthened, whether in repairing a fractured trade system, warding off a crippling debt crisis or fighting Covid-19.

The impending debt crisis will loom very large at this month’s (virtual) annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington. As IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva has bluntly put it, “The world is at a critical juncture and should not sit idle waiting for a crisis.”

She was referring to global debt which has now reached US$258 trillion, or 330 per cent of global GDP, according to the Institute for International Finance, but the same could be said of a global financial system which is being kept afloat by huge and ultimately unsustainable liquidity injections.

This, as Hung Tran, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington has observed, “is an unhealthy state of affairs, undermining the basic tenets, efficiency, and dynamism of a capitalist market economy – basically repeating Japan’s experience of the slow growth decades.”

It is not only in the economic sense that healing is needed to make the world into a whole and “wholesome” again. The barroom brawl tone of the Trump-Biden “presidential” debateunderscored the sore lack of leadership and statesmanship in the world’s largest economy.

The image of US leadership has been degraded to a point that it makes Chinese President Xi Jinping look like a model of statesmanship and where Trump’s lack of anything remotely resembling integrity or gravitas is matched perhaps only by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s irresponsible antics.

Once freed of political obligations to pander to voters in middle America, Biden, as president, should view the world and not least the global economy as a Humpty Dumpty not yet shattered by a fall but poised to crash and break into fragments that cannot easily be put back together.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
King Charles and Prince Harry Share First In-Person Moment in 19 Months
Starmer Establishes Economic ‘Budget Board’ to Centralise Policy and Rebuild Business Trust
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Brazilian police say ex-President Bolsonaro had planned to flee to Argentina seeking asylum
Trinidad Leader Applauds U.S. Naval Strike and Advocates Forceful Action Against Traffickers
Kim Jong Un Oversees Final Test of New High-Thrust Solid-Fuel Rocket Engine
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump to pause billions in foreign aid
Charlie Sheen says his father, Martin Sheen, turned him in to the police: 'The greatest betrayal possible'
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
Pig Heads Left Outside Multiple Paris Mosques in Outrage-Inducing Acts
Nvidia’s ‘Wow’ Factor Is Fading. The AI chip giant used to beat Wall Street expectations for earnings by a substantial margin. That trajectory is coming down to earth.
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
On the Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s Death: Prince Harry Returns to Britain
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Murdoch Family Finalises $3.3 Billion Succession Pact, Ensuring Eldest Son’s Leadership
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Court Staff Cover Up Banksy Image of Judge Beating a Protester
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
Generations Born After 1939 Unlikely to Reach Age One Hundred, New Study Finds
End to a four-year manhunt in New Zealand: the father who abducted his children to the forests was killed, the three siblings were found
Germany Suspends Debt Rules, Funnels €500 Billion Toward Military and Proxy War Strategy
EU Prepares for War
BMW Eyes Growth in China with New All‑Electric Neue Klasse Lineup
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
×